I got my niece and nephew (about 3 and 5 years old) a big almost desk size box one Christmas. Just a plain box. My sister said they were done with all their other toys by the end of Christmas day, but they played with that box for several more weeks until it wore out. Creative play beats corporate marketing every time.

LOL, my son would do the same. Build a fort out of, or decorate, the box. Eventually build the lego toy. Add it into his pile of legos. Eventually deconstructing it and building pokemon characters out of the legos.

I remember playing a lot with boxes when I was a kid. I used to do all kinds of stuff, from cardboard airplanes to 'remote cat traps' (I had a poor cat that suffered the 'testing' with a saint's patience).

I think sometimes having parents that won't buy you everything you want forces you to get good value from what you have.

I can't remember what came in it, but I had an absolutely huge (i.e., fit two pre-teen girls in it) box bestowed on me when I was about 12. One night, my friend Kim & I made a fort out of it and slept outside. The next day, we made up this *awesome* game that I'm thinking should be called 'rock the box' - basically it consisted of sitting with our backs to the bottom of the box (the bottom perpendicular to the ground) and rocking back and forth. Spent *hours* doing this. Good times.

YOU'RE the one who should be ashamed. At least the droids and the MMT are from George Lucas's original storyline (if you want proof google wookieepedia). If you want to complain then complain about the newest movie "the Clone Wars" because ANAKIN NEVR HAD A FREAKIN APPRENTICE